1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to furniture and the packaging of furniture for shipment and storage. More particularly, the invention relates to ready-to-assemble furniture, which is to be assembled by the purchaser or end user from packaged components, and the packaging of ready-to-assemble furniture.
2. Background Art
Ready-to-assemble furniture is furniture which is packaged for shipment and storage in disassembled form, with assembly to be done by the consumer or end user. Examples of existing ready-to-assemble furniture include bookcases, television stands, and simple chairs and benches. Furthermore, mass merchandised ready-to-assemble furniture is expected to be rather less expensive to the consumer than comparable pre-assembled furniture or to have distinctive functional features generally not available with its pre-assembled counterpart.
Because of limited shelf or warehousing space in retail facilities, ready-to-assemble furniture available at retail is generally limited to furniture which can be compactly contained in a lightweight, easy to handle package which can be conveniently displayed and transported. Consequently, the genre of ready-to-assemble furniture packaged for mass merchandising retail sale has generally comprised pieces of furniture which are utilitarian or hard-surfaced, and which are available in only limited colors or surface finishes. As such, prior ready-to-assemble furniture does not satisfy the need for primary pieces of upholstered living room furniture in a typical household.
A method is needed to provide comfortable, inexpensive furniture of high quality in a compact, easily storable and transportable way, for distribution by mass merchandising channels and which can accommodate a wide variety of consumer decorating tastes.